Few Americans realize what an important part in the lives of the Filipino people the coconut plays. The tall slender trees without a branch, except the cluster of leaves at the very top, are the most characteristic feature of the Philippine landscape. These trees supply timbers for building, thatch for roofs and walls of houses, hats, fans, household utensils, oil, food, and drink. The trees are often used as corner posts for houses, thus giving a secure anchorage against wind-storms and earthquakes, while the roofs and sides are covered with coconut leaves.

Each nut is surrounded by a large fibrous husk, so that the fruit as it comes from the tree is two or three times as large as the nut itself. The fibers in this outer husk are very stiff and are used to make hats, brushes, mats, and other similar articles. Cups, spoons, ladles, and trays are made from the shell of the nut, which takes a very handsome polish.

The ripe coconut with its hard dry kernel, as it is generally seen in the United States, is quite different from the young nut as it hangs on the tree. Then it contains only a thin layer of soft white meat around the inner part of the shell, the remaining space being filled with a delicious liquid.

When people are traveling in the Philippines and become thirsty, a man fastens a strap or cord to his feet so that they will be about as far apart as the diameter of the tree, and with this aid in bracing himself, he climbs easily up the long straight trunk to the leafy crown where the nuts hang in clusters. He cuts off and drops to the ground as many nuts as are wanted, and then slides down the tree. With his bolo he strikes a slice from the husk of a nut so deftly that a small hole is opened in the shell and the liquid, cool, sweet, and refreshing, is easily drunk. When the traveler’s thirst is quenched, the nut is split in half, a rude spoon is made from the husk, and the thin layer of soft white meat is scooped from the shell and eaten. By boiling the kernel of the ripe nut an oil is obtained which is used for burning in lamps, for cooking, and for oiling the hair. When the meat of the coconut is dried it is called copra (co'-prÄ), and large quantities of this are shipped to foreign countries, where it is used for making candles and soap.

By tapping the flower, a liquid is secured that is made into a drink called tuba. Each day in the cool early morning, a Filipino, having a bamboo tube slung from his shoulder in place of a bucket, climbs the tree to collect this sap. The flowers can be so tapped for about three months; of course the nuts have to be sacrificed if tuba is wanted, because the flowers die. It is a common sight in a coconut grove to see large bamboo poles reaching from the top of one tree to its nearest neighbor. These are for the use of the one who taps the flowers, so that instead of climbing each separate tree he can pass from one to another by this dizzy bridge and thus secure his tuba with less effort.

Owners of coconut groves take great pains to keep thieves from climbing their trees and stealing their fruit. If a man’s grove is far away from his house, where he cannot keep close watch, he makes notches in the trees about fifteen feet from the ground and inserts pieces of broken glass all around the trunk; then if any one tries to climb past this barrier, he is severely injured by the sharp glass and is forced to return to the ground. Sometimes, instead of glass, large thorny branches are fastened to the trees for the same purpose. When the owner wishes to get his crop of nuts, he either carefully removes these obstacles, or he climbs a near-by tree and crosses over from the top by means of a bamboo pole as when getting tuba.

Francisco’s grandfather, who owned a tienda (tÏ-en'-dÄ), or small store, in Camalig, used to tell him a very interesting story about a coconut. “A long, long time ago,” he said, “many years before my grandfather was born, there grew a very tall coconut tree, far taller than any you have ever seen; and the fruit that grew on this tree was so large that you could not even see round it. One day the largest of these nuts fell from the top of the tree, but instead of striking the ground, it remained floating about in the air. The fibers changed, and instead of being brown and coarse, they became soft and green and slowly grew into grass and flowers and trees. By and by, God put people on the outside shell of this large nut to use and enjoy the vegetation.

“The milk which was inside changed into a terrible fire that sometimes burst through cracks in the shell of the nut, causing what we call volcanoes. Demons and various kinds of evil spirits began to inhabit this inner fiery region, and they have been known to come out through the craters of volcanoes to trouble the people who live near by. The smoke and gases that are so often seen coming from volcanoes, or from cracks in the ground, are from the burning bodies of wicked people whom these demons have caught and carried away. And so, Francisco, if you are wise, you will be a good boy and do just as your father and mother tell you, or you may be taken from the outside to the inside of this wonderful coconut.”